Area surrounding CN Tower closed due to falling ice

Falling ice from the CN Tower has caused a number of closures in the downtown core for the second day in a row.

Toronto police issued a notice Tuesday afternoon saying that the CN Tower and Ripley’s Aquarium are closed due to “recent weather conditions.”

The Rogers Centre is open for the Blue Jays doubleheader, but gates one through six are closed. Anyone attending the game will have to enter and exit from the west and south sides of the building.

Bremner Boulevard is also closed between Lower Simcoe and Rees streets.

There are no closures related to the Air Canada Centre, where the Toronto Raptors are scheduled to face off against the Washington Wizards at 7 p.m. but officers are advising attendees to “exercise patience” in the area.

The ice accumulation on top of the CN Tower was the result of an unusual April ice storm that struck the Greater Toronto Hamilton Area and southern Ontario over the weekend.

The tower closed on Monday after large chunks of ice started to fall from the building causing damage to the Rogers Centre. This resulted in the cancellation of the evening’s Blue Jays game against the Kansas City Royals. In an email to CTV News Toronto Monday, a spokesperson said the ice chunks fell from the “upper pod and antenna mast at the very top of the tower.”

“Some of them are floating in the area, some are coming straight down,” Sgt. Chris McCann said. “There is substantial weight to them. Those are the ones we are concerned about. There are some sheets of ice still attached, some as large as 100 feet high and 30 feet wide.”

In a news release issued Tuesday, Toronto police said they are monitoring the situation and will provide updates.

“Closures and traffic restrictions are put in place to allow for the safe movement of vehicles and pedestrians,” the release said. “Anyone travelling in the area is asked to exercise patience and allow for extra travel time.”

Ice storm, staffing shortages cause continued delays

Hundreds of flights were delayed or cancelled over the weekend due to the erratic weather and a lack of communication appeared to be the main complaint from customers.

A passenger from Buffalo travelling from Aruba to Toronto says she spent six hours on the tarmac at Pearson International Airport before being allowed to deplane.

“We were not given updates from the captain, maybe every hour and a half. We were not given food or water. There were children on the plane crying,” Jessica Rochelle told CTV News Toronto.

Passengers were allowed off the plane around 4:30 a.m. after a woman called 911 due to distress, Rochelle said.

But, Rochelle said their bags had not arrived.

She eventually made her connecting flight to Buffalo. Since being home, she has tried calling both the airline Sunwing and Pearson airport, but said she was told they have “over 4000 bags” to sort through.

Sunwing has issued a statement saying “the ongoing weather conditions impacted airport operations and have been compounded by staffing issues on the part of Swissport, our baggage handling contractor.”

As of 6 p.m. Tuesday, most Sunwing flights were delayed by two to three hours.

A Markham man is facing several charges after allegedly doing doughnuts in the middle of an intersection in Pickering, right under the view of a Durham police chopper, and leading authorities on a high-speed chase.